Cholowski could have played in the AHL this season though, but he can't now until his season ends (Portland gets eliminated from the playoffs). He was drafted by Prince George, but originally decided to go the college route rather than Canadian juniors. Since he was not in the CHL when he was drafted by the Wings, he had the option to go straight to the AHL as early as last season. He wasn't ready, and I'm okay with that. Everyone develops at different rates, and Cholo has taken huge strides since being drafted. I'm excited for this kid, and hopeful that he can develop into a top pair defenseman some day. I don't think there's any question he'll be an NHL defenseman, it's just a matter of whether or not he hits his ceiling.

If this is the case, then this changes things a bit for me.I was under the impression that he couldnt play in GR. But I'm still optimistic.

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"I don't want to say just a checker, I don't mean it in that sense but Kirk Maltby had 50 goals when he played junior and people that didn't see him play junior might not know that."

If you EVER watched a game when Maltby played it was mentioned a FEW times he was 50 goal scorer in juniors. .....

The reality is, there are a lot of players in junior that are very skilled a high scoring players in the context of the rest of the group they are playing with, but they aren't skilled enough to move on to the NHL and be good scorers. Those guys can go 1 of two ways, 1) adapt their game and see if they can make it in a different role (e.g. Maltby) or 2) don't end up pursuing the NHL.

I laugh every time I hear about Maltby scoring 50 goals in junior though....to put it in perspective, here are some data points - from that same year, same league (16 teams):

- 27 players scored at least 45 goals or 90 points

- Maltby had 50 goals and 91 points

- Darren McCarty had 55 goals and 127 points

- 2 others were Corey Stillman and Andrew Brunette, who each went on to play over 1,000 games in the NHL and score more than 700pts

- 7 of those players combined to average 19 goals and 43 points over their entire NHL careers

- 16 - never played a shift in the NHL, which included the leading scorer who had 146 points

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